AUSTIN — The General Land Office is paying Alamo CEO Douglass W. McDonald $2,000 a day to oversee the state-owned shrine under a contract that runs through September.

The yearlong agreement limits payment to 14 days a month, meaning McDonald’s annual compensation could reach $336,000, more than double what Land Commissioner George P. Bush earned last year.

GLO spokesman Bryan Preston said McDonald puts in “far more hours” than the contract requires and bills fewer days than he works.

“The rate was negotiated based on fair market value for the services he provides to a museum of the importance and prominence of the Alamo,” Preston said in a written statement. “As a contractor, Mr. McDonald is not paid for vacation (or) benefits of that nature.”

Alamo management has become a hot-button issue for Bush, who has faced pressure from state lawmakers and former Republican primary challenges to make operations at the shrine more transparent. Though the historic battlefield falls under the General Land Office, the Alamo and its multiyear master plan are managed by a series of nonprofit entities on which Bush is a board member.

McDonald, a Cincinnati museum consultant, took over as CEO last August after serving as an adviser on the Alamo master plan for several months. Since summer 2017, McDonald’s firm NGOgro, LLC has been paid more than $220,000, according to the state comptroller website.

Gene Powell, a board member of the Alamo Endowment, said the state is getting a “real bargain.”

“He is costing us a lot less than if we had gone out and hired a new CEO, based on the prices we have looked at,” said Powell, who also chairs the master plan management committee. “We’re getting outstanding expertise, outstanding work ethic … and we’re getting it from a guy who doesn’t have to be here.”

As CEO, McDonald oversees a roughly 100-member staff for the ambitious, multiyear effort to redevelop the historic battlefield and launch a museum to hold hundreds of Alamo artifacts, including those donated by musician Phil Collins.

As president and CEO of the Cincinnati Museum Center for nearly 16 years, McDonald oversaw what officials there called a financial turnaround of the center. He also oversaw the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Before stepping down from the center in 2014, McDonald was paid more than $378,000 annually, the nonprofit’s 2013 tax filing shows.

“The value is having talented, experienced, museum professional management,” McDonald said. “If we do the project right, it won’t require taxpayer support every year. … The value of that is really, really large and it’s a lot more than my contract.”

A contractor was chosen, versus a permanent CEO, because the Alamo master plan is in its infancy, Powell said. It’s not expected to be fully implemented until 2024.

“Trying to hire an absolute top-level museum CEO with this plan this unsettled would have been extremely difficult,” he said.

The contract was not competitively bid. McDonald was picked because his firm already was “enmeshed” in the project as a contractor advising on the master plan, Preston said.

“We had gotten to know Mr. McDonald, so we turned to him to be the temporary consultant CEO to get us through this transitional period,” Preston said. “He is also project manager on the master plan interpretive design, and is helping develop a scope for the future management team including a new CEO.”

McDonald’s initial contract was signed in April 2017 and renewed for a year in September 2017, with the added stipulation that he would serve as the “Chief Executive Officer of the Alamo,” a copy posted on the agency’s website states.

Since the contract started in April, NGOgro has been paid $264,049, Preston said. The agency did not provide a breakdown showing the hours McDonald worked each month, but Preston said McDonald has billed for 128 of the 150 days he has worked so far. Though the contract limits pay to 14 days a month, services can be reduced or expanded “by mutual agreement.”

Beyond fees, McDonald, whose home is in Ohio, has been reimbursed about $8,050 in travel costs. Though permitted by the contract, he hasn’t billed for his accommodations, Preston said.

McDonald said he often works beyond the scope, but doesn’t charge.

“There is a limit on the number of days for which I am paid, but no limit on my time and personal commitment to the Alamo,” McDonald said.

Alamo employment at times has been a point of contention. Some lawmakers have pushed for Alamo staff to be employed directly by the state, instead of through the Alamo Trust, a subsidiary of the nonprofit created to oversee daily shrine operations. McDonald’s contract is with the General Land Office and funded by the Alamo Complex Account, which is made up primarily of money generated at the shrine.

“It is common for organizations going through a transitional period to contract out for specialized management skills and services on an interim basis,” Preston said.

Bush recently pledged to open Alamo Trust meetings to the public and said at the next one, he will step down from the nonprofit’s board to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. A meeting has not yet been scheduled.

Scott Huddleston is a veteran staff writer at the San Antonio Express-News, covering military and veterans affairs, history and preservation. He has been a reporter at the Express-News since 1985, covering a variety of issues, including public safety, flooding, transportation and local government. Scott covered the final construction phase of the SBC Center -- now AT&T Center, where the Spurs play -- in 2002, and wrote a weekly historical feature, "Then&Now" for the Sunday Metro section from 2001-2006.